ᐅ Evaluation of floor plan for approximately 145 sqm single-family house with basement, ground floor, and upper floor
Created on: 14 Oct 2021 12:44
A
Arango18
Hello everyone,
Zoning plan/restrictions: Zoning plan and restrictions considered by the architect
Plot size: 675m² (7260 sq ft)
Slope: yes, running diagonally across the plot (see elevation plan)
Building window, building line and boundary: 3 m (10 feet) on all sides
Edge development: yes, neighbor to the southeast
Number of parking spaces: 2 in garage and 2 in front of garage
Number of floors: 2.5
Roof type: gable roof, 36 degrees
Architectural style: simple
Orientation: southwest
Maximum heights/limits: same as neighboring buildings, sufficiently high
Other requirements: none
Street: cul-de-sac; our house is at the end, with neighbors on one side and open view of forest, meadow, and valley on the other
Owners’ requirements
Style, roof type, building type: interior as open and straightforward as possible, exterior simple
Basement, floors: basement, ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF)
Number and age of occupants: currently 2 (both 28 years old), planning 1-2 children
Space requirements for GF, UF: approx. 140 m² (1507 sq ft) of living space
Office: absolutely necessary due to 80% remote work
Guest bedrooms: very rare use
Open or closed layout: open
Conservative or modern construction: conservative (mostly because it’s usually more affordable)
Open kitchen, cooking island: open kitchen with bar or island (due to space and layout, more likely a bar)
Dining seats: 4-6
Fireplace: planned but not mandatory
Music/stereo wall: standard TV wall
Balcony, roof terrace: small terrace on the slightly extended garage towards southwest, terrace towards southeast
Garage, carport: double garage with a single door
Utility garden, greenhouse: standard
Other wishes/notes/daily routine, including reasons why some things are wanted or not: a small shower in the guest WC is very important to us, as well as a small room for the home office. Since I work from home 80% of the time, this is essential. Also, a small storage room for vacuum cleaner etc.
House design
Who designed it: architect
What do you particularly like? The dining and living area looks bright and cozy in our opinion. Not too big and not too small with a great view.
What don’t you like? Why? Bathroom layout feels too tight and awkward, hallway in the upper floor too narrow?
Preferred heating system: air source heat pump
If you had to give up some features, which ones?
Fireplace
Why did the design end up like it is now?
The original design was larger and included more details such as corner and roof windows, but it was optimized for cost.
However, the room layout and overall room concept basically remained unchanged.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
I would appreciate further suggestions, especially regarding the aspects we don’t like. Overall, we are quite happy with it. Do you see any major “no-gos”?
If any information is incomplete or unclear, I’m happy to check it again.
Zoning plan/restrictions: Zoning plan and restrictions considered by the architect
Plot size: 675m² (7260 sq ft)
Slope: yes, running diagonally across the plot (see elevation plan)
Building window, building line and boundary: 3 m (10 feet) on all sides
Edge development: yes, neighbor to the southeast
Number of parking spaces: 2 in garage and 2 in front of garage
Number of floors: 2.5
Roof type: gable roof, 36 degrees
Architectural style: simple
Orientation: southwest
Maximum heights/limits: same as neighboring buildings, sufficiently high
Other requirements: none
Street: cul-de-sac; our house is at the end, with neighbors on one side and open view of forest, meadow, and valley on the other
Owners’ requirements
Style, roof type, building type: interior as open and straightforward as possible, exterior simple
Basement, floors: basement, ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF)
Number and age of occupants: currently 2 (both 28 years old), planning 1-2 children
Space requirements for GF, UF: approx. 140 m² (1507 sq ft) of living space
Office: absolutely necessary due to 80% remote work
Guest bedrooms: very rare use
Open or closed layout: open
Conservative or modern construction: conservative (mostly because it’s usually more affordable)
Open kitchen, cooking island: open kitchen with bar or island (due to space and layout, more likely a bar)
Dining seats: 4-6
Fireplace: planned but not mandatory
Music/stereo wall: standard TV wall
Balcony, roof terrace: small terrace on the slightly extended garage towards southwest, terrace towards southeast
Garage, carport: double garage with a single door
Utility garden, greenhouse: standard
Other wishes/notes/daily routine, including reasons why some things are wanted or not: a small shower in the guest WC is very important to us, as well as a small room for the home office. Since I work from home 80% of the time, this is essential. Also, a small storage room for vacuum cleaner etc.
House design
Who designed it: architect
What do you particularly like? The dining and living area looks bright and cozy in our opinion. Not too big and not too small with a great view.
What don’t you like? Why? Bathroom layout feels too tight and awkward, hallway in the upper floor too narrow?
Preferred heating system: air source heat pump
If you had to give up some features, which ones?
Fireplace
Why did the design end up like it is now?
The original design was larger and included more details such as corner and roof windows, but it was optimized for cost.
However, the room layout and overall room concept basically remained unchanged.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
I would appreciate further suggestions, especially regarding the aspects we don’t like. Overall, we are quite happy with it. Do you see any major “no-gos”?
If any information is incomplete or unclear, I’m happy to check it again.
11ant schrieb:
In the meantime, I’ve already tried inserting your property with correct orientation into it: Oops, misjudged :-(
@Hangman corrected it in post #83 🙂
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Hangman schrieb:
More important to me than the kitchen are the orientation, access route, and parking spaces (whether inside the house or not). Do I understand the plan correctly as follows?
[ATTACH alt="Hanghaus Arango.JPG"]66252[/ATTACH]
If so, you are completely ignoring the best side of this really great plot with priceless views and privacy. The kitchen, dining area, terrace, balcony, and children’s room are all squeezed up against the neighboring buildings, overlooking their rooftops or your paved area. On the entire upper floor, there is basically no chance of a nice view (except when brushing your teeth or using the bathroom). The eastern corner of the house is cut into the slope, while the other sides somehow extend out of the terrain—the office will probably be the most open. The very long access path ruins your entire – uniquely beautiful!!! – west side and, by the way, won’t work as planned since the slope shown in the lower stair run doesn’t actually exist in reality. And I’m also not quite sure how the 6 m (20 ft) wide driveway into the garage ‘ignoring the slope’ would function.
I find the floor plan itself basically okay, but it doesn’t really seem to fit well with the hillside. Or have I completely misunderstood?
If this is really the idea and you don’t want to change the floor plan significantly, I would at least recommend mirroring it and/or seriously reconsidering the internal garage. Maybe you could also place the main entrance in the middle of the house (in the current left garage section). This would eliminate the current long access path, allow you to use the hallway space on the ground floor, and provide a practical mudroom at the entrance with plenty of space for coats and shoes 🙂
Still, I consider a better option to be a longer two-story house oriented to the west, with the cars parked somewhere at the corner of the property.You have the orientation of the house exactly right.
I like the idea of the entrance, especially since it would initially save the stair structure and provide guests with more direct access from the parking area. However, I’m concerned the entrance area might be too dark… I’ll need to think about that some more.
Overall, I understand your concerns and thank you for them, but I want to put them into some context. The house is planned to be positioned as far left and low on the lot as possible, leaving plenty of space to the neighbor. Also, the neighboring house has a similar layout, with the terrace oriented the other way around. So the neighbor won’t be looking directly into our living spaces, so to speak 🙂
I also believe that on one of the terraces there is sun in the morning, at midday, and early afternoon, and on the ledge outside the dining room there is sun until sunset, as well as the corresponding views in the evening…
What I am personally less satisfied with is not being able to look down into the valley from the living room. In this respect, I would like to optimize the window placement and furniture orientation, but I’m not exactly sure how yet…
If necessary, I think it would be possible to create a small terrace area at the front entrance without significant costs, or am I completely wrong?
I have nothing against your neighbor at all… I’m sure they’re very nice. But looking at the view in post #21, I would also want my terrace on the other side of the house, even with the nicest neighbor 🙂
Unfortunately, the view in post #14 is not accurate either: it would only look like that if you oriented the house parallel to the slope (which would mean rotating the house about 40° clockwise). But since that’s not the case, only one corner of the house (not the entire side) is on the slope. Everything else (including access paths and the garage entrance) then runs somewhat diagonally to the slope. Your acquaintance with the excavator will definitely have enough work to do – and you probably won’t recognize the property afterwards.
If you place the entrance in the middle of the house on the lower floor (and make sure to get enough light in any case), the garage will have to go. And if you do that, you might as well redesign for two floors.
Another option would be the one I already mentioned in post #20: mirroring the ground floor and upper floor layout. That way, the west side would be free, the access would be in the southeast, close to the street, and would run downhill as well. Whether and how the garage and balcony combination would then be designed is something the architect will have to figure out.
Unfortunately, the view in post #14 is not accurate either: it would only look like that if you oriented the house parallel to the slope (which would mean rotating the house about 40° clockwise). But since that’s not the case, only one corner of the house (not the entire side) is on the slope. Everything else (including access paths and the garage entrance) then runs somewhat diagonally to the slope. Your acquaintance with the excavator will definitely have enough work to do – and you probably won’t recognize the property afterwards.
If you place the entrance in the middle of the house on the lower floor (and make sure to get enough light in any case), the garage will have to go. And if you do that, you might as well redesign for two floors.
Another option would be the one I already mentioned in post #20: mirroring the ground floor and upper floor layout. That way, the west side would be free, the access would be in the southeast, close to the street, and would run downhill as well. Whether and how the garage and balcony combination would then be designed is something the architect will have to figure out.
H
hanghaus200018 Oct 2021 16:3511ant schrieb:
Oops, mistyped :-(
@Hangman corrected it in post #83 🙂 I had already fixed that in post #50.
@Hangman @hanghaus2000 You both seem to be real “slope experts” 🙂
Could you give me your opinion on our landscaping plans (based on the current orientation of the house)?
Here’s the idea: backfill the excavation on the left side of the house (for the stairway and entrance area), partially create terraces (as shown in the designs and behind the house).
However, we would also like to keep part of the area natural, meaning we want to have a natural shoreline section in the garden – specifically towards the east / northeast, if I’m reading the site elevation plans correctly and understanding the property layout.
Do you think this is feasible, or have we missed something? These are just some initial thoughts; we haven’t discussed this yet with the architect.
Could you give me your opinion on our landscaping plans (based on the current orientation of the house)?
Here’s the idea: backfill the excavation on the left side of the house (for the stairway and entrance area), partially create terraces (as shown in the designs and behind the house).
However, we would also like to keep part of the area natural, meaning we want to have a natural shoreline section in the garden – specifically towards the east / northeast, if I’m reading the site elevation plans correctly and understanding the property layout.
Do you think this is feasible, or have we missed something? These are just some initial thoughts; we haven’t discussed this yet with the architect.
H
hanghaus200018 Oct 2021 19:08Calculating a mass balance is very complex in such a configuration. The planner is obliged to design in a cost-effective way. Therefore, they should create a mass balance to properly address this task.
I try the opposite approach. I position the house optimally on the slope whenever possible. This also ensures the mass balance. As a result, fewer or no retaining walls are needed.
To calculate this, knowing the soil conditions is essential.
I try the opposite approach. I position the house optimally on the slope whenever possible. This also ensures the mass balance. As a result, fewer or no retaining walls are needed.
To calculate this, knowing the soil conditions is essential.
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